Clothes lines

I hang my clothes outside.

I haven’t used my dryer in close to a full year now. I have a line and a drying rack indoors that I hang my clothes up on when the weather is too bad outside for my wussy-ness. I hate the cold. This has been working out for me very well this winter.

Last year I had some issues during the winter with my clothes taking way too long to dry so my dad suggested that I use a fan to get the air moving a bit. That worked like a charm. We’ve had so few days this winter that have been too cold or rainy/snowy that I think I’ve only dried my clothes indoors just a handful of times. Mostly I have been paying attention to the weather and hanging them outside.

As you can see I have room for one more line:

There have been enough times that I’ve really needed more space that I think I am going to go ahead and get another one this year. I’m trying to decide between putting in another chain or one of the plastic coated metal lines. There are advantages to both.

I hang everything that would usually go on hangers up wet on their hangers then put those through the linkage on the chain. It takes up a whole lot less space that way and I have the advantage of not having an extra step. I can just take the clothes inside and hang them right in the closet, instead of having to take them off the line and hang them up.

I’m sure my neighbors think I’m weird being out there on these colder days hanging up my laundry. I’m sure they think that I don’t have a dryer. The truth is that I DO have a dryer, I just truly enjoy being outside hanging out the laundry. I even enjoy hanging it up inside, tho not as much as being outside. I’ve noticed a big difference on wear and tear on my clothes too. Especially the pieces that have some kind of elastic in them like underwear and bras. The heat from the dryer tends to ruin the elastic so they go all weird really fast. Hanging them up to dry I don’t have that same issue and they look brand new, even six months to a year after purchase.

I’ve been considering getting rid of my dryer completely. I would really love to put a sink in next to my washer, since its in my fish room, I could really use the water source! I probably won’t, at least not any time soon, but it is something I am considering.